H.B. 5254, An Act Ensuring Access to Parking Near Public Beaches and Recreational and Scenic Areas

To create an equitable world for people of all races, the ACLU-CT believes that we must address racism in all its forms. Access to places of leisure like public beaches and swimming pools have long been sites of discrimination. Although racial discrimination in beach access is typically associated with the de jure segregation of southern beaches, Connecticut has its own history of pervasive discrimination. Fair beach access is an issue that has haunted Connecticut for too long, with restrictive policies that are grounded in politics and discrimination.

The instruments of segregation, beginning with the racist and anti-Semitic restrictive covenants of the early twentieth century, remain impressed upon our public beaches, resulting in a culture of exclusion. While cities have been forced to shutter public parks, playgrounds, beaches, and swimming pools in low-income areas, municipal public beaches sustain parking fees that charge non-residents hundreds of dollars more than residents, who are more likely to be people of color from cities lacking beach access.

In Connecticut, the line between public and private beach property is demarcated at the high tide mark, with the state recognizing swimming and recreation as legitimate uses of public trust land. In 2001, the Connecticut Supreme Court recognized that public beaches are traditional public forums for expressive speech activites protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the free speech and assembly provisions of the Connecticut Constitution. In spite of this, beach access in Connecticut is as exclusive as it was when Ned Coll’s first bus departed Hartford in 1971. Stark differences between resident and non-resident pricing mean that Black and brown people are disproportionately more likely to pay hundreds of dollars just to enjoy shoreline leisure, something that is just much their right as anyone else in Connecticut.

The ACLU-CT strongly supports House Bill 5254 as an essential measure to confronting a deep history of racial discrimination in Connecticut’s public spaces. Access to the shoreline by Connecticut residents should not be determined by zip code, and instead should be open to all. As such, the ACLU-CT urges this Committee to support House Bill 5254.